Buscabulla's Se Amaba Así Is a Callback to Hardcore Feelings

Vogue

2 days ago

'It's actually the opposite,' says del Valle when I suggest as much at their record company's offices in Brooklyn. 'This is the most intimate thing we've ever written in our lives. We are talking about our relationship, our difficulties, our relationship as parents, as friends, as lovers.'
'It's interesting that you see it that way, because it's true that there is a narrative built in, but we wanted it to be more cinematic, to give it a touch of fantasy,' adds Berrios. 'But it is a narrative based on our life.'
Their vulnerability shifts every theory I'd developed while listening to the album. While they're certainly not the first couple to explore their relationship (beginning, middle, or end) while making music together, the reveal does feel like a tiny gut punch.
It's not that they hadn't borrowed from their life before; Regresa, their first full-length album after two critically acclaimed EPs, revolved around their decision to move back to Puerto Rico, where they both grew up, following years of living in New York City (where they actually met, almost a decade earlier). Released in May 2020, what was supposed to be a celebratory occasion was, of course, radically reframed by COVID. 'Releasing a record during the pandemic was fairly wild.' Berrios recalls. 'The truth is, I don't have bad memories of the time because it was like a return to community in a way, but it was very hard for us professionally.' Unable to tour or properly promote the record, they got creative, like when they filmed an episode of NPR's Tiny Desk from inside their car on the beach in Aguadilla (while the rest of the band played from their own house). They were finally able to go on the road in late 2021, and went back to the studio the following spring to work on new material. It was an uncertain moment. 'We had no hope, no steam—and then Bad Bunny happened,' says Berrios.